The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1887-10-06
A SINGULAR CASE.
The Annual Effects Of Rattlesnake's
Rite.

! A Williamsport, Pa, dispatch says
On Aug. 80, 1888, a 5-year-old son o
George Putnam, who lives at Stony
Ford, Tioga county, was returning
home from driving the cows to pas
ture, and stopped by the roadside tC
pick some berries. He was barefoot.
ed and suddenly felt a sharp sting on
| the instep of his foot. He ran cry
ing home and told his mother that he
had scratched his foot with brier.
The foot had begun to swell and his
mother picked from the flesh what
she at first supposed to be a brier,
! but as the foot continued to swell,
and the boys sufferings were intense,
the alarming fact was apparent that
he had been bitten by some poison
Gus snake, and that the supposed
brier was one of its fangs that had
buried itself in the wound and been
pulled from the snakes jaw.
Mrs. Putnam called her husband,
who was at work near the house, and
alarmed other members of the fami
| ly. A live chicken was cut In two
and the warm flesh applied to the
wound. Whisky was given to the
boy in large quantities, and mess
enger dispatched for a doctor. A
member of the family went to the
spot where the boy said he had felt
the sharp sting, and found rattle
snake cooled near the roadside. The
snake was killed, and one OF its fangs
was found to be missing, which left
no doubt of the nature of the BOYS
foot, which had swollen to more than
double it's natural size. The suffer
ings of the boy were SO great that he
could scarcely be held down in the
bed by two men. The doctor arriv-
ed and cauterized the wound, but
said it was too late, and that the boy
would die.
The swelling had extended up the
leg to his waist, and the leg became
spotted. Antldotes prescribed by
the doctor were administered, but
the whisky treatment was also adher-
ed to. The boys body turned black,
but after three days of the most ter
rible agony the swelling began to go
DOWN, and IN a week the victim was
able to get about. In month
time all the effects of the poison
seemed to have disappeared, aad the
Day was as well as ever.
On Aug. %, 1884, he was seized
with sharp pain in his foot, which
began to swell, and in a qho9t time
his leg and loot were swollen totwice
their size, and became spotted as
they had on the day the boy was bit
ten by the snake. He experienced
the same symptoms, and suffered for
three days almost as much agony as
he had the year before. When the
swelling again went down the pain
subsidized, and tue symptoms disap-
peared. Regularly on Aug. % eve-
ry year since the same symptoms
have appeared, on the authority Of
a well known citizen Of Tioga county,
and their recurrence this year was
marked by more than usual pain and
swelling, the spots on the leg and
body strikingly resembling that OF
rattlesnake. The snfferings of the
last week were 50 iptensS that he
was not expected to pass through
them with his life, but at last ac-
counts he was slowly recovering.
1t is said that there are three SINH
lar cases on record, one Of girl who
was bitten by rattlesnake in Liv-
ingston county, N. Y, thirty years
ago, and who for twenty-five years,
on the anniversary of the day on
which she was bitten, was subject to
the same symptoms as attended the
original poisoning. She died in
great agony on the twenty-fifth re-
currence of the terrible symptoms.